Subject: Regional migration
EO&E...........................................................................................................................................
DAVID COLEMAN: Good morning. This year, the Government is reducing the permanent migration intake to Australia and we’re also requiring more new migrants to settle in regional Australia. The fact is in recent years we’ve seen a very high proportion of our population growth in just three places: Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. And in fact, about 70 per cent of Australia's entire population growth has been in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Now earlier this year, we announced that in this year's migration program we'd have 23,000 places reserved for migrants who commit to live and work in regional Australia, and that if they do that and if they commit to live and work in regional Australia for at least three years, they'll be eligible for permanent residency. Now, in the first quarter of this financial year, we saw very strong growth in regional migration as we put in place our plan to encourage more migrants to settle in regional Australia. In the first quarter of last year, we had less than 3000 people settle in regional Australia under the existing regional visas, and this year in the first quarter we had more than 6000 visas approved for those same regional visas. So, we've seen a very strong start to the year in encouraging regional migration.
And so what the Government is announcing today is that we will be increasing the allocation for regional places in our immigration scheme for this year from 23,000 to 25,000. Now, what that means is there will be less people settling in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and more people settling outside of those three big cities. And we think that's a good thing, because we know that in regional Australia and that in our other smaller and medium-sized cities, that there is a lot of demand for skilled migration. And we know that historically, we've seen a very large proportion of our skilled migration in those three cities. So today we're announcing that we're increasing the regional intake to 25,000.
QUESTION: So what’s changed between now and earlier on in the year when the Government decided to not include Perth and Gold Coast in this scheme?
DAVID COLEMAN: Yeah well look, what we've seen is that Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane account for about 70 per cent of all of our population growth, and we have had advocacy from governments from all sides of politics in relation to those two places. And we've decided to include those places in our program, because as I said, close to 70 per cent of our total population growth is in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. And we do have significant issues with congestion and population growth particularly in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. I mean, here in my own electorate in the St George and Bankstown areas in Sydney, we do have significant congestion, we have had significant population growth. So this is about encouraging more migrants to settle outside of those big cities and to support regional Australia.
QUESTION: Just back to that question though, why is Perth and the Gold Coast now included when it wasn’t before. Is it an acknowledgement that, you know, people might still want some of them [indistinct] of a pretty big city?
DAVID COLEMAN: Well look, Perth was classified as a regional location under the program until 2017. And so we're reinstating its regional status and we've also had advocacy from the Gold Coast as well. And we do want to give people who settle outside of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane as many opportunities as possible to settle outside of those three places, because those three big cities are where the vast bulk of Australia's population growth is. And it's really important that people are able to acknowledge the fact that there has been significant congestion, that there has been significant population growth in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. That's the reality. The Government’s recognising that reality and that's why we're putting in place this plan to encourage more people to settle outside those big cities. And in the first quarter of this year we saw very significant growth in regional Australia, reflecting the success of the success of start of that plan.
QUESTION: Given that so much of regional Australia is battling drought at the moment, is there concern that sending more workers there is only going to put greater stress on those areas?
DAVID COLEMAN: What we see is there's about 50 or 60,000 vacancies in employment in regional Australia. And the reality is, although we of course always want every single possible job to be filled by Australians – that's a fundamental principle – there are some occasions where jobs can’t be filled by locals, and that's where the skilled migration system comes in. Now, the total number of new migrants under the permanent migration program last year was the lowest for 10 years. So we have reduced the total migration intake, and this year it will reduce again.
And this year it will reduce again, so we're bringing down the total amount of migration, but we're acknowledging that it's important that the government focuses not just on the total number of migrants, but also the distribution of where they go. And what we're saying is, we're focusing very much on ensuring that people do settle in regional Australia where those opportunities are. So take South Australia for instance, which has had very low population growth for a number of years, where there's a lot of vacant job opportunities in skilled migration. Under this plan South Australia will get a greater proportion of migration than it's had historically, and Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will get less.
QUESTION: Minister, a lot of people who work in the sector say that a lot of these skilled migrants are looking for jobs that are only available in the bigger cities, in those bigger metro areas, what do you say to them?
DAVID COLEMAN: Well look, the way that people are able to go to regional areas under our skilled migration plan is broadly through two ways. One is that they have a job with an employer who's saying that they want that person. The other is that a state or territory nominates that person because they believe that there is a gap in that state or territory in the regions which that individual can fill. So that's the only, they’re the key circumstances in which people come to Australia under these programs. So we know that there are job vacancies in regional Australia. We know when you go into many agricultural communities in Australia - I was recently down in south-western Victoria in the dairy industry and other industries down there, where there are a significant number of job opportunities available. And we always want Australians to fill those jobs wherever possible, but where there's a gap, that's where skilled migration can play a role and in supporting those regional communities to grow.
QUESTION: What are the specific jobs you’ll be offering on visas, can you name some of those jobs?
DAVID COLEMAN: There's a range of different jobs. So under the skilled migration program, there are lists which specify the jobs and they are based on areas where there are gaps in the employment market. So there are some that might be related to the agriculture sector. There are some that might be related to the construction or mining sector, there's a range. But the principle is that a skilled migrant only comes to Australia where that role can't be filled by an Australian. We want Australians in jobs wherever possible, but we know that in regional Australia there's been a persistent issue with not all jobs being filled by locals. We also know that we've had the vast bulk of skilled migrants going into just three places, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. And so we want to encourage more people to take up those opportunities in regional Australia.
QUESTION: Labor says it could take up to two years to process some of these visas, preventing people from settling in some of those communities even if they wanted to. What's the Government going to do to cut down on the backlog?
DAVID COLEMAN: In this year's budget, we provided some $19 million for priority processing of regional visas. So we are putting people who want to go to regional Australia at the top of the list, at the top of our priority list, because we know that there are many opportunities in regional Australia. We know that historically the vast bulk of migrants have wanted to settle in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but we want to back migrants who want to commit to regional Australia, who want to live and work in regional Australia for at least three years, support those communities, help to grow those communities, and that's why we've put that $19 million into the budget to prioritise processing. And we've seen the fruits of that in the first quarter of this year, where we had a 124 per cent increase in the number of visas - regional visas - granted compared to last year. And that shows the practical impact of our commitment.
QUESTION: Isn’t there concern though that these areas really are under strain by drought, and perhaps funding could be used to help relieve the pressure that already exists rather than sending more people into these really stretched areas?
DAVID COLEMAN: Well look, in terms of a drought of course, the Government has a very comprehensive approach, some $7 billion invested in terms of direct help to households, in terms of helping local councils and other organisations to get money flowing through those communities, and also through longer-term drought resilience projects. So there's a very strong focus on the drought. And I can tell you as a MP who represents an urban area that every time I'm down in Canberra and that we gather to talk as a ministerial group, that drought is very much at the top of the agenda.
So there's a huge amount of work going on there, but there is also the reality that there are many parts of regional Australia – South Australia is one, south-western Victoria is another – that are crying out for more people. We've seen a similar situation in Tasmania, where historically Tasmania hasn't got the proportion of migration, certainly the proportion that's gone into the big eastern cities. And this is about rebalancing that, because the Government's always had a view about how many migrants come to Australia, and what we're doing now is having a much sharper focus not only on how many people come but also where they go. We’ll just do one more.
QUESTION: Just on another issue if that’s ok, has the government received any correspondence from lawyers representing some of the women married to ISIS fighters in Syria about going on to control orders if they were to return?
DAVID COLEMAN: Look I wouldn't comment specifically on any correspondence or anything of that nature. I know Minister Dutton and the Prime Minister made very clear comments on this issue and those comments reflect the fact that we won't do anything that puts Australian Defence Forces or other Australians at risk in relation to this matter. That's fundamental. But I wouldn't go into any anything further on that.
QUESTION: And just one more question. There’s been some questions raised this morning about the PM’s citizenship. Has he given you any reassurance that he’s fit to hold office or about any concerns about his Australian citizenship?
DAVID COLEMAN: I'm not familiar with that issue, but I'm sure that's the case.
QUESTION: On this article in The Guardian today claiming that he might actually be holding New Zealand citizenship?
DAVID COLEMAN: Okay, well I haven't seen that article. Thanks very much.
[Ends]
